Beekman goes Beast Mode, delivers knockout punch for Wahoos

By Jerry Ratcliffe

When it’s crunch time, most coaches are highly predictable. They put the ball in the hands of their best player and tell everybody else to get the hell out of his way.

Exactly what Virginia did on a night when things didn’t come easy for the nation’s No. 22 team against a determined visiting Northeastern squad Saturday. The Cavaliers allowed Reece Beekman to go Beast Mode, and the senior point guard delivered with a game-winning drive to the basket with five seconds remaining in a 56-54 UVA win.

Trailing 54-52 with 66 seconds to play, Tony Bennett put the game in Beekman’s ample hands. Beekman put the Cavaliers on his back, drawing a foul on a drive to the hoop with 52 seconds to go and knotting the game at 54-all.

Northeastern, which had answered with counterpunches all game long, called on one of its most reliable plays but mishandled a throw-and-catch across the court and turned the ball over with 24 seconds left, giving UVA one last chance.

Everyone in the joint knew where the ball was going, but nobody could stop it. Beekman took the ball and drove on the Huskies’ Rashad King, put up the shot and scored with 5.1 seconds to go, and saved the Cavaliers’ bacon as they avoided the upset in improving to 9-1.

Last night’s @raisingcanes Play of the Game vs. Northeastern!

🔶⚔️🔷#GoHoos pic.twitter.com/mYtGU7glWU

— Virginia Men’s Basketball (@UVAMensHoops) December 17, 2023

“Reece is a tremendous player and I thought he pretty much willed them to victory,” said veteran Northeastern coach Bill Coen.

Coen’s assessment was correct. With most of his teammates somewhat out of sync after an 11-day exam break and Northeastern focusing much of its defensive effort in shutting down Virginia 3-point sniper Isaac McKneely, Beekman did what a leader is supposed to do. He took over and scored a career-high 21 points.

With the game on the line, Beekman was at his best.

“We kind of turned it into just me go set a ball screen for [Beekman] and let him cook, which was working,” laughed Jake Groves (8 points). “Obviously he was the guy that was making things happen for us tonight, so it was our job to get him open to put him in position to do what he does best. He’s really bigtime down the stretch, especially with that last shot.”

Coen praised Beekman’s ability to operate in the lane, along with his quickness, explosiveness, his ball-handling ability, and how he can make tough mid-range shots over opposing length, something the Cavalier guard did all day.

The Huskies put their best athlete — guard Masai Troutman — on Beekman, and Troutman did his best to hang with the UVA point guard, but in the end, Beekman fouled him out and Northeastern didn’t have anyone else who could answer in that matchup.

“[Beekman] just made things happen off the bounce … not only his ability to score, but his ability to find his teammates,” Coen said.

Like his alley-oop pass to teammate Ryan Dunn for a slashing slam dunk that gave the Cavaliers their largest lead of the game at 47-44 during a 7-0 run that included one of McKneely’s two triples late in the second half.

“[Dunn] is always running, so he gets on me sometimes when I miss him [on a potential oop],” said a grinning Beekman, who added five assists. “That was a great play for him going up and getting that. It was a big moment for us.”

If Virginia wanted to keep its winning streak alive (the Cavaliers have now won five straight), somebody was going to have to make a statement. Beekman knew it was crunch time, time for him to take over.

“Just having to make plays … I had to do that kind of throughout the game, the whole game, but especially down the stretch,” Beekman said. “Being the point guard and leader, you’ve got to step up in those situations. The team counts on me in those situations, so I just stepped up and made the plays we needed to win the game.”

The last play? Groves’ aforementioned assessment was spot-on. Give the ball to Reece, get the hell out of the way.

“We just wanted to space the court out, kind of give me an attacking space and [Northeastern] kind of switched on it down under, so I played a little hesitation game,” Beekman said.

When it was over, Bennett joked that he should have sprinted and gotten the game ball and given it to Beekman, but that his star guard didn’t seem too concerned about it.

“Reece was terrific,” Bennett said. “He made the plays. He started picking it up with his defensive on-ball pressure, then down the stretch made a couple of buckets, he made the pass to [Dunn] and was touching the paint. He took over and made some plays.

“It was just one of those smashmouth games that you had to be the last man standing and plays had to be made.”

Just as expected, Beekman made those plays and was the last man standing.